Slow Horses Season 6's Release Avoiding Major Streaming TV Complaint Explained By Gary Oldman

Published Aug 26, 2026, 7:12 PM EDT My career in journalism got kicked off after eight years as an active duty Naval Aviator, starting with covering college sports for Inside Lacrosse and SB Nation. After joining the staff at USA Today's For The Win, I started dabbling in pop culture coverage and fell in love with it. I'm happy to talk movies and television any time, and I'm usually listening to music (or an audiobook) in my free time. The show might be called Slow Horses, but when it comes to its release schedule, it's anything but. Slow Horses returns to Apple TV on September 16 with its sixth season of the spy thriller series, with all six seasons coming in a four-year span. It's a pattern that goes wildly against the grain, and not just when compared to streaming overall. Even on the platform, the Gary Oldman-led drama is unusual in its cadence when other shows on Apple TV can take two to three years between seasons. That doesn't happen by chance, with Oldman being one of the biggest proponents of keeping things moving along at a steady pace. "You invest in these people, these fictional people, and then the show ends, and you’ve got to wait two and a half years," Oldman said in favor of the more rapid approach to filming. The star spoke in detail about his role in the Emmy-winning series at the Edinburgh TV Festival, telling Edith Bowman, "He has no filter, he is direct, he can’t be arsed with the social norms. That’s the fun of playing him." To further hit home the impressive speed with which they put out Slow Horses, season 7 has already finished filming and season 8 has already begun production. This is all done without sacrificing any quality, having earned 23 Emmy nominations and pulling in two wins. The show, which was created by Mick Herron, follows the journey of a handful of MI-5 rejects at Slough House — a group (not so) affectionately nicknamed the Slow Horses — led by Oldman's Jackson Lamb. Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, and Christopher Chung also star in the series, but two familiar faces are making their return this season. In season 6, someone is hunting down and killing former members of Slough House, causing the team to go dark.Rosalind Eleazar, who played Louisa Guy through the first four seasons before departing in season 5, is back, as is Olivia Cooke's Sid Baker, as Lamb attempts to keep his people safe. Baker was last seen all the way back in season 1, as she was presumed dead after seemingly being shot in the head. But in the season 6 trailer, Baker appears at the top of a set of stairs, greeting a stunned River Cartwright (Lowden). On top of handling the return of Baker and a duo of assassins trying to hunt him down, Cartwright must also deal with the fallout from the death of his beloved-yet-mysterious grandfather — played by the incomparable Jonathan Pryce — and the reappearance of his untrustworthy father. Season 6 of Slow Horses is set to debut on September 16 on Apple TV, and episodes will be released once a week on Wednesdays. Release Date April 1, 2022 Network Apple TV+ Showrunner Douglas Urbanski Cast Jack Lowden River Cartwright Directors Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein Writers Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood